Mobile Home Giveaway Facebook Scam

Outline:
Facebook Page claims that you can get a chance to win a mobile home from “Redwood Unique Homes” just by liking the Page, sharing a post about the giveaway and adding a comment.

Brief Analysis:
The Facebook Page is fraudulent and it is not giving away a mobile home as claimed. There is no prize and no winners. The Facebook Page is a scam designed to rapidly accumulate large numbers of page likes. After the bogus Page has gathered many new likes, it can then be used to launch other kinds of scams or sold on the black market to other scammers.

Example:
GIVEAWAY!!
We have teamed up with Redwood Unique Homes to bring to you this amazing giveaway! To enter, All you have to do is like our page, drop a comment, and share this post. A winner will be picked at random on August 7th 2016!
Remember that you MUST LIKE OUR PAGE, SHARE THIS POST, AND DROP A COMMENT to be entered! If you miss one you WILL NOT BE entered!

Detailed Analysis:
According to a post on a Facebook Page that calls itself “Mobile Homes”, you can get a chance to win a home supplied by “Redwood Unique Homes” just by liking, sharing, and commenting. The post features several photographs apparently depicting the exterior and interior of the mobile home being given away. It instructs you to like the Page, and then share and comment on the post to enter the giveaway.

However, the Page is yet another Facebook scam. No mobile homes are being given away and there will be no winners. The Facebook Page is designed to collect very large numbers of likes very quickly. Pages with high numbers of likes can later be used to perpetrate further scams or sold on the black market to other scammers. By demanding that users like the Page as a condition of entry, the scammers know that their Page like count will increase rapidly. And, by getting people to share and comment as well, the scammers can get their fraudulent giveaway seen by an ever increasing number of potential victims.

The exterior and interior of the home depicted in the photographs do not even match. In fact, they are from two different homes. The exterior shot actually shows a house manufactured by park home and holiday lodge company, Tingdene Homes in the UK. Other photos of the house on the Tingdene Homes website reveal that the house’s interior is very different than the interior depicted in the photos on the fake Facebook Page. The interior shots on the Page were stolen from a sales listing for a luxury mobile home located in Malibu, California. Thus, the two homes depicted in the scam post are not even on the same continent. And, neither website mentions a company called “Redwood Unique Homes”.

There have been several similar like-farming scams on Facebook in recent weeks. One promised the chance to win a “Mega Luxury Dream Home” to users who liked, shared, and commented. Other versions promised users the chance to win “Luxury RV” motorhomes, again for liking, sharing, and commenting.

If one of these scam posts comes your way, do not be tempted to participate. If you do, you are not only aiding and abetting scammers, but exposing your friends to the scam as well.

Last updated: August 5, 2016
First published: August 5, 2016
By Brett M. ChristensenAbout Hoax-Slayer